KPCC Blogs

This weekend, the eighth installment of the Harry Potter film franchise opens for its eager fan base. In the case of J.K. Rowling’s series, her best-selling books have translated into equally big box office successes. Lucky that. Often a beloved novel adapted for the screen provokes passionate pans. Readers feel let down when a tale […]

‘Twas the night before the closure, and all through the streets, not a vehicle was stirring, not even a Jeep”…. This evening, freeway ramps on the 405 will gradually close as the 53-hour stint of construction on the Mulholland Bridge begins. Everyone is bracing for the surface street congestion and general frustration soon to ripple […]

Malaysia Airlines plans to ban babies from traveling first class on its Airbus A380 super jumbo jet and children under 6 are being banned from a restaurant in Pennsylvania. What gives? In the case of the airlines, its CEO Tengku Azmil said that passengers who spend a lot of money for first-class seats are often […]

Inching along surface streets in bumper-to-bumper traffic can be hellish, but imagine driving in a city with structures and regulations specifically designed to torture car users—with large portions of blocked road, fees for traveling in congested areas, popular biking programs authorized to hog car lanes, closely spaced red lights, and reduced parking. Oh, the horror! […]

Kody Brown might be one of the most famous polygamists in the country. As one of the stars of the show Sister Wives, he, his four wives and their sixteen children and stepchildren have been featured prominently on TVs across America. Now, Utah state officials are saying the family is under investigation for violating state […]

Last month, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make the most radical changes to patent law that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has seen in 60 years. Backed by many Republicans and Democrats, as well as the White House, the bill will allow the first person who files an application—rather than […]

Med school could be changing in a very big way. At Virginia Tech Carilion, administrators have started to rely on more than just grades and test scores to determine admission. Additionally, they have instituted the multiple mini interview (M.M.I.), a series of nine unprompted interviews focusing on social skills, ethics and communicative ability. Students get […]

When researchers at Southern Methodist University put microphones in the households of 37 families the intent wasn’t to study spanking or corporal punishment—the original aim was to study yelling with voluntary audio recordings of parents conducting life at home. What came back were dozens of instances of smacks and slaps, followed by the crying of […]

Smart, Dugard, Holloway, Anthony…these are the names that have captured our national attention in the last few years, and now the public profile of these women is on the rise. Jaycee Dugard just gave her first big interview to Dianne Sawyer, Elizabeth Smart is about to become ABC News’ contributor on missing person cases and […]

Since the Columbine shootings of 1999, educational institutions across the country have worked to reduce campus violence by introducing school site police officers, surveillance systems, drug testing and zero-tolerance policies. Many agree that the intention behind these measures is laudable, but extreme cases of rule enforcement—like the 2010 arrest of a twelve-year-old for doodling on […]